


humanization of fear

by axentis



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood, Character Study, Gen, Injury, Old work, One Shot, because it has all the makings of a two or three shot fic, for now, i may or may not revisit this, idk about this just read it, mostly just a "what emotions would it take for this scenario to happen?", prose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 06:55:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9111493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axentis/pseuds/axentis
Summary: Aang goes Avatar during his rescue from Ponhuei fortress. Zuko is desperate to fix this.OROne way Aang and Zuko could've bonded in 'The Blue Spirit'. Or at least, the framework of it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hm, I don't necessarily know what spawned this fic. Either way, it's surprisingly decent old work. I might even revisit this work sometime. It's also un'beta'ed... so... point out my mistakes, will you? Also, if you think there's any tags I need to add, just comment them.

They’re falling, and for a second, Aang feels as if his own element is working against him. Air slips through his cloak - makes it flutter quietly as he lands behind the Spirit. The Spirit - _the Blue Spirit_ , Aang thinks, _from the old Fire Nation play_ \- stands up and draws his swords, but Aang flings himself in front of him and throws up an air shield as fire surrounds them from all sides. The fire keeps coming in a continuous stream. Somewhere, deep in his gut, Aang gets the feeling that he’s going to falter soon - he can’t keep this up for long. His heart thuds frantically in his chest, pounding in time to the mantra in his head - _What do I do?_

He doesn’t even get the chance to think about it. Suddenly the fire isn’t deflecting off his shield anymore. The scent of ozone disperses at the sound of a voice:

“Hold your fire!”

Sycophantic, silken smooth, irritating as knives scraping across gravel - it’s _Zhao_. A mix of emotions race through Aang, but primarily two - fear, and a biting _vengeance_ to get back at what Zhao said to him in the prison. But like a good monk, the second feeling is gone as soon as it comes.

“The Avatar must be captured alive!” Zhao orders.

Aang barely comprehends the sentence fully before he feels two blades slip under his chin and a shadowed gaze affix upon him - _the Blue Spirit_. For a second, the feeling of absolute desolation courses through him - the Blue Spirit’s betrayed him. He should've known this would have happened; he should’ve predicted it! The panic rises in his chest.

The Blue Spirit and Zhao stare at each other, a deep tension between them like a bridge of ice. Zhao’s words click. The Blue Spirit is not betraying him, Aang thinks, and the panic fades, just a bit. The Blue Spirit is holding him captive - to escape.

It’s brilliant, _actually_.

Zhao’s eyes narrow -

Make that brilliant, but also an incredible gamble.

“Open the gate,” Zhao growls.

Immediately, the man behind him protests. “Admiral, what are you doing - ?”

Zhao cuts him off before he can finish. “Let them out. Now!”

The gates creak open slowly - too slowly - and Aang and the Blue Spirit maneuver their way out. The dual swords barely scrape Aang’s throat, but no blood is drawn even when he’s jostled. It’s horribly unrelated but Aang marvels for a moment at the Blue Spirit’s control over his blades, even in this tense situation.

They’re four-hundred yards away when Aang’s hyper-alert airbending senses it - the indicative shifting and displacement of air on the top of the wall. The sound of Zhao’s voice in his ears, almost a whisper, but audible because of Aang’s jittery airbending: ”Do you have a clear shot?”

Aang’s gut drops and his body goes cold; this won’t be a clear getaway. The Blue Spirit remains oblivious to the fact that he’s going to -

_die._

The dark thought blindsides Aang. His breath catches but the Blue Spirit continues breathing, as if there’s nothing wrong. The Blue Spirit, Aang notes almost randomly, breathes silently, the motion of his chest the only indication of his respiration. For a split second, Aang’s awareness broadens and he can feel the Blue Spirit in his entirety -

There is muscle and sinew beneath the black-clothed arms, a fighter’s heart raging fiercely in the torso pressed against Aang’s back.

There is a ribcage and a core, taunt like a bowstring ready to spring at any provocation, or a volcano ready to erupt at any minute.

In that moment, it strikes him that the Blue Spirit is so very human. It almost didn’t seem that way when he was attacking soldiers with godly grace, but now that Aang actually feels him he realizes that this person could die any minute for Aang - _forever_ , no Avatarism to allow him passage to the next life.

Aang can almost see the arrow embedded in the throat of the man behind him, the warm blood spilling from his jugular, staining his Air Nomad cloak. He can visualize it too clearly - the corpse falling to the ground to become carrion meat, to picked away at until bones gleamed pale white in the sunlight.

… like some other corpses he knew.

_“How does it feel like to be the last airbender?”_

They all died for him and, and -

And now someone else was going to die for him.

He can’t let that happen. He just _can’t_.

_Twang!_

The bow reverberates like thunder in his ears and the arrow travels faster than he can feel but he needs to stop it; he can’t let this man behind him die but -

Before he can act, the arrow hits its mark, and the last thing Aang hears is the sickening quelch of metal embedding in flesh before his memory fades and the world unravels into white light.

* * *

Zuko had to admit that the fight was incredibly difficult. Had they had another minute, Zuko would’ve made a clean getaway with the Avatar, but unfortunately, someone found out that the Avatar was missing and raised the alarms.

He can’t help but be a little irritated in his change of plans. He’s usually horrible with plans, but one can dream of a clean infiltration _and_ escape.

Now, as he and the Avatar were retreating from the fortress, Zuko couldn’t help but feel that there was something off in how easily they got away. If the fight was so difficult, the escape shouldn’t have been this easy.

Still, there’s nothing to be done about it. The second he lets go of the Avatar, he’s done for - Zhao will take him out and recapture the Avatar without hesitation. Then they’d probably present his dishonorable corpse in front of his father, and that’s an even worse option than dying in Zuko’s opinion.

The Avatar tenses against him, and Zuko’s annoyance only rises - doesn’t he know that he’s just making it harder for both of them?

Nothing can prepare him for what comes next.

The following seconds are completely incomprehensible to Zuko - there’s a whirr and a flash and a thud and Zuko’s arms are suddenly jarred to either side, the blades flying from his fingers. His shoulder drags him backwards and pulls him down to the ground and blazing light leaves imprints swimming behind his eyes.

He blacks out for a few seconds.

His first dazed thought when he comes to is _What’s that light?_

The answer doesn’t come to him immediately. In fact, it takes him a minute. Fact by fact, Zuko takes in the world from the ground up. First of all, he is laying on the ground, his mask slipping down his face. Second, his left shoulder burns and throbs, and the dark cloth around the wound is getting sodden with warm blood. Thirdly, Zuko’s view of Ponhuei fortress is completely obscured by the raging tornado created by the -

_Avatar._

The source of the light is suddenly altogether too apparent, for where there was once a 12-year-old boy in front of him, there was now a floating being of immense power. The Avatar stands in the air, body held taunt in a fighting position. An air shield envelopes him, deflecting the hoard of arrows coming at him with unparalleled ease. One twitch of his arm, and the entire world seems to ripple in a rush of air and dust.

Zuko’s next thought is far less a thought than a primitive rush of fear. The Avatar - no,  _Aang_ \- is in the Avatar State.

It shouldn’t scare him that much but he can’t stop the fear, anyway. He’s seen the Avatar State before twice, once in the Southern Oceans, and then again in the Fire Temple. He knows that it’s absolutely awe-striking - a display of power far greater than what a mere mortal could achieve, a power of hundreds of thousands of lives - but… it has never been like _this_.

When the Avatar rose from the sea and came out of the temple, he carried with him a indeterminable apathy. Now, instead, he possesses an air of desperation, his body poised, frenzied pain lining every tense limb and muscle. His upper body is curled forward in a stance more sunken than any fighter’s stance, almost collapsing into himself in a fetal position. Oriented away from Zuko and focused completely on some distant enemy on the fortress, the Avatar leaves his back open to any attack from the rear.

Wind whirs into a tornado around them in one of the most powerful displays of airbending - of _any_ bending - Zuko’s ever seen, but in that moment, the Avatar appears more vulnerable to Zuko than ever before.

Most people, if they were trying to capture the Avatar, would do one of two things - run away or use this vulnerability - this opportunity - to strike. Zuko is not most people. He would never do the former as its not within his nature to give up without a fight. But he wouldn’t do the latter, either. Zuko’s not an opportunist - he’s not Zhao, who would attack while the enemy’s unprepared. One thing that Zuko knows about himself is that he would never, ever, strike an enemy while they were defenseless. There’s no honor in the act; there’s no glory; there’s only shame if you kick someone while they’re down.

So he doesn’t attack. Well, that and the fact that even if he tried, his shoulder would end up incapacitating him before he manages to incapacitate the Avatar.\

The only way to capture the Avatar then, he supposes, is to draw him out of the Avatar State conscious, grab him and run.

**Author's Note:**

> ..... aaanddd he proceeds to try and grab Aang, not by force, but by emotional persuasion. Hope you liked it! (and maybe reviewed it too?)


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